Fishguard and Goodwick

Fishguard comprises of the old harbour of Lower Town, the main town of Fishguard, perched on the cliff top. Lower Town Fishguard is a particularly picturesque village with its cluster of quayside cottages.

What's in Fishguard and Goodwick?

Activities

Fishguard Bay is a superb location to explore by kayak. Several operators use the calm water of the bay for kayaking so to do local activity centres.

Attractions

Within the Town Hall is the 100ft long Last Invasion Tapestry, telling a humorous and entertaining story in a Bayeux tapestry style of the last invasion of mainland Britain in 1797.

4U at Theatr Gwaun shows a changing programme of films and live events. There’s a thriving folk music club who hold informal performances in The Ship & Anchor every Tuesday.

Three miles east of Fishguard is Dyffryn Fernant garden, this 6-acre garden sits in its surroundings extremely well, at the same time managing to incorporate a wide range of planting including a bog garden, ornamental grass field, an exotically planted courtyard and a fernery.

Food & drink

Fishguard and Goodwick have a range of interesting pubs, cafés and restaurants as well as deli’s, whole food shops and takeaways.

Accommodation

There are some quality B&Bs and hotels in the town and a choice of small campsites and caravan sites nearby. Self-catering cottages can be found all across the Fishguard bay area.

Getting to Fishguard and Goodwick

Fishguard has good transport links locally. The Strumble Shuttle and the Poppit Rocket coastal bus services link the town with St Davids and Cardigan.

Fishguard has a railway station at Goodwick and the ferry terminal and is one of the major ferry crossing points to Ireland.

Did you know...

Lower town Fishguard was a locally important trading port importing limestone and coal and exporting slate, woollen goods and food. It also had a small fishing fleet catching pilchards and herring.

Although a maritime history and coastal setting are noted as significant in defining Goodwick’s special character, it is the period of late 19th- and early-20th-century growth that defines the Goodwick’s character. With the 1906 arrival of the railway, and the use of Goodwick Harbour for trans-Atlantic liners, Goodwick had a fashionable heyday in the Edwardian period, and the Victorian and Edwardian shops are identified as being key parts of Goodwick’s character.

Fishguard and Goodwick was the location in 1797 for the last invasion of Britain when the French landed at Carreg Wasted Point, just around the corner from Fishguard. Britain and France had been at war again since 1793 and on February 22nd 1797, fourteen hundred French soldiers landed in West Wales. The French surrendered two days later thanks to the heroic actions of people like Jemima Nicholas, a local cobbler, who single-handedly captured 12 French soldiers, the invasion soon failed. The peace treaty was signed in the Royal Oak pub on Market Square.

In more recent times Fishguard and Goodwick was the location for the filming of Moby Dick with Gregory Peck and Lower Town was the location for Dylan Thomas’s most famous play, Under Milk Wood starring Richard Burton.